MHP offers AK Party continuation of alliance in local elections

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is looking to retain the alliance they formed with the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for the upcoming local elections.

MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli said that his party will continue the collaboration that they formed for the June 24 parliamentary and presidential elections for the sake of the country.

"The MHP will continue its reconciliatory and common-sense approach in a period when Turkey struggles for its survival. We do not desire the gains in the June 24 elections to be lost on March 31," Bahçeli said over the weekend, warning against the prospect of falling apart in the local elections.

"It is our primary task for the local government to be appointed by our nation for the success of the new governmental system. Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir and 27 provinces should not be in the hands of administrators who are incompatible. This is a historic responsibility. Municipalities should not be directed by the PKK in Turkey. Turkey must return to the pre-July 15 era," the MHP chairman said.

Previously, dozens of municipalities in the eastern and southeastern provinces fell in the hands of PKK-affiliated mayors as they were found guilty of aiding and abetting the terrorist group by way of supplying municipality-affiliated vehicles and funding their terrorist activities.

The AK Party and the MHP decided to form a political alliance for the presidential and parliamentary elections when MHP Chairman Bahçeli announced that his party would not name a candidate for the 2019 presidential elections and would support the re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan instead. As a result, the alliance, named the People's Alliance, won 340 seats in Parliament, 290 by the AK Party and 50 by the MHP.

As Bahçeli urged the AK Party to continue the alliance in the local elections, AK Party Deputy Chairman in charge of local organizations Mehmet Özhaseki said that nobody in the party should take their posts for granted.

"If we have friends who have come from our own organizations, we will try to include them [in the lists] too, but when the preferences of the citizens are a little bit different, we respect them too. We invite many valuable people outside the party to seek candidacy for mayor [positions] and we will make an offer," Özhaseki said.